Lies and Rumours
by Kitty September
Summary: Cora/Lydia, fake dating prompt fill. Everybody lives AU. F/F with background Sterek.


Cora is an idiot. That's all there is to it. She's going to die. Admittedly more from the embarrassment than the 'grr bad puppy smack' thing her Mom always threatens but never follows through on, what with all the humans crawling about the Hale house this weekend. But that just makes it all worse. Stupid Derek and his stupid engagement

It started off as a joke, a way to get Peter off her back about all this stupid 'mate' crap he's always on about. Just because he's all blissful and gross he wants to spread the 'joy' of mated life with the rest of the family. Yuck.

Saying that she was 'seeing someone regularly, actually' wasn't a lie. She was seeing someone, regularly. Every damn day in fact at the Moon Bean cafe at Stanford where she works when she's not studying. Every damn day Lydia comes in and orders coffee and jokes and looks like sex come to life and wearing lipgloss. So, yes Cora sees her. Sometimes she even gives her coffee and maybe even talks to her. Some days Cora even thinks the redheaded beauty flirts back a bit.

The mistruth worked a treat though. Peter bought it hook line and sinker. Unfortunately so did the rest of the family. 'I thought you smelled happy,' Laura had teased. And Laura looked so pleased about it too, and it was all too much.

It hadn't seemed like a big deal to just let them think it was all for real… just for a while. It got them off her back, made them happy, what was the harm? She'd just lie a few weeks before Christmas and say they 'broke up' - she can lie to them over the phone, mope about a bit and they'd probably leave her alone for even longer than originally expected. It'd be great.

But no. Her stupid brother and his stupid boyfriend have to go and get engaged don't they. Now she can have a fake break-up with her fake girlfriend or Derek will secretly sulk (which is worse than honest open sulking which you can at least be annoyed about). So, now she just needs an excuse for why she didn't bring the mysterious red-headed angel with her from Palo Alto.

She's been trying to think of an excuse for the whole drive and so far… zilch. All she's sure about is that she's an idiot. A soon to be dead idiot. Cora Hale, dumbest werewolf in California, that's her.

She slams the car door with more force than necessary. It's enough to stop her little cousin Ivy up short as she comes bounding down the front steps to leap on Cora like usual. Cora forces a smile through the burnt taste of frustration on the back of her throat.

"Hey Ivy! How's my favourite puppy?"

Ivy rolls her eyes, "I'm not a puppy, that's gross."

Cora just laughs and hugs her anyway. She tries to think of small talk that's appropriate for a twelve year old that also buys her a few more minutes until she faces the music of her own incompetence. She's just about to resort to the good old 'how's school' even though she still hates it herself and it's even less relevant now that all Hales are home-schooled by Alpha decree. Then her brother's stupid boyfriend tumbles out of the house, literally tumbles, and offers her a reprieve.

"Oh Cora, my savior, my darling, light of my life," Stiles stumbles out and he stumbles over himself to get to her and thrust a bit of cardboard into her hands.

"What?" Cora asks. It's easier to keep things simple with Stiles. "Also, you know half the family can hear you right now right? Hitting on me will actually get you killed. Like, dead."

Stiles just smirks at her. She realises belatedly that she sounds a bit too much like the annoying human for her own good. She shoves him, just to reassert her dominance in the situation, but he's used to werewolves now and just kind of rolls with it - literally again.

"That is not what this is, at least not today. Anyway your mystery red-head would probably kill me first right?" He looks around expectantly but, thankfully by some ADD driven myrical, he gets distracted back to his own topic. "Anyway, no, no no. No time for that right now. I need you to go to the airport and fetch me a red-headed mystery instead. Also not for the cheating on your precious brother purposes you seem so determined to force on me, bee tee dubs!"

"Okay," Cora says, almost too quickly but apparently Stiles is distracted enough not to notice.

"Good, great, fantastic, I owe you a kidney, etcetera!"

He herds her back to the car and before she knows it she's backing out of the driveway of her family home and heading for the tiny Beacon Hills airstrip. With a note card and some effusive apologies to 'the goddess' who has been waiting there for almost an hour already.

Cora goes through her mental list of Stiles' friends trying to guess which one she's collecting. There's the asthmatic kid, who even Cora remembers despite being taken out of mainstream school after the arson attempt. It was that wheeze - hard for a young werewolf to miss really. And there's Erica. But Erica is blond most of the time. And living in Beacon Hills… maybe? Cora doesn't always pay attention to people in general and Stiles in particular. There was another one, another boy, but she suspects he moved away at some point because he hasn't been mentioned since Stiles showed back up in their household a few years ago. Although Cora had already been away at college by then, so who knows. But that still doesn't answer this particular mystery. Apart from the wheezy guy and Erica, Cora was pretty sure Stiles didn't have friends - at least friends that weren't technically just parts of Derek that he'd named strange things anyway.

She's still musing the question, and failing to use her extra time to think of an excuse for Lydia that isn't an outright lie when-

"Cora?"

Yep, that's actually Lydia. Standing in front of her. With a Louis Vuitton bag and her hair in a scrunchy and… oh god Cora is going to die right now.

Cora swallows.

"Um," she says, like the articulate English and Film major she is.

Lydia smiles at her like the whole damn sun.

"So," Lydia says, hefting her second bag awkwardly, "this is going to sound a bit crazy, but seeing as you're here and all, and apparently going to this engagement party nonsense… can you pretend to be my date?"

"What?" Cora splutters back.

Lydia blushes. It might be both the cuttest and hottest thing Cora has ever seen at once.

"I know it's crazy, and I know we don't really know each other anymore but… I kind of told Stiles I'm seeing someone to get him off my back and, well, you're a believable option, right?"

Cora laughs, and Lydia looks like she might throw something so Cora puts her arms out in plication and a little bit of defense, too.

"Sure," Cora says. "I'd love to be your fake girlfriend, Lydia. But, well you've gotta be mine too!"

Lydia frowns, and, yep, that's the cuttest and hottest thing Cora has ever seen. Maybe, just maybe, they can pull this off.


End file.
